A summit is convened to find ways to exploit economic bright spot

Published 11:21 pm, Wednesday, August 15, 2012

ALBANY — It was a cultured gathering, and participants worked hard to milk it for all the attention it was worth.

If that isn't enough breakfast-food wordplay for you, consider that Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Wednesday convened the state's first "Yogurt Summit" at The Egg. The meeting attracted dairy farmers, food manufacturers and other stakeholders to brainstorm ways to cultivate and expand one of the upstate economy's few bright spots: the boom in Greek-style yogurt, which has lifted the fortunes of everyone along the production chain.

"All the demographics on yogurt keep going up," Cuomo said after his administration said it planned to ease certain environmental regulations on dairy farmers. He added that the move should "send a different signal — that we get it."

The meeting was in keeping with the governor's message that he wants New York to be "Open for Business," with state government helping industry rather than regulating or constraining it.

The yogurt industry's growth in New York is due to some fortuitous circumstances. The boom is widely believed to have started several years ago, when companies such as Fage and Chobani began making the creamier Greek-style yogurt to serve New York City's sizable Greek population. The companies calculated that putting the plants upstate would facilitate shipping to the city. But the protein-laden food caught on with consumers of all ethnic groups, which created a vast new market for milk.

Photo: Michael P. Farrell

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David Lainchbury of The Dannon Company, left, and James McConeghy of Chobani speak during the Governor Andrew M. Cuomo New York State Togurt Summit in Albany, NY Wednesday Aug. 15, 2012. (Michael P. Farrell/Times Union) less

David Lainchbury of The Dannon Company, left, and James McConeghy of Chobani speak during the Governor Andrew M. Cuomo New York State Togurt Summit in Albany, NY Wednesday Aug. 15, 2012. (Michael P. ... more

Photo: Michael P. Farrell

Yogurt's growing place at the table

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In another stroke of luck, New York dairy farmers have been well-positioned in recent years because they tend to grow much of their own feed corn, putting them at a competitive advantage over their larger California competitors: West Coast dairies are struggling with the high price of corn brought on by international demand, drought conditions and ethanol subsidies.

Midwest dairy producers, meanwhile, have focused on cheese, leaving much of the burgeoning Greek yogurt market to New York farmers.

Since 2000, the number of yogurt processing plants in New York has risen from 14 to 29. Production doubled between 2005 and 2011, and the amount of milk going to yogurt production has gone from 158 million pounds to 1.2 billion pounds, according to state statistics.

With the goal of keeping this winning streak going, participants in the Yogurt Summit pointed to challenges and potential obstacles that might block future growth.

They ran the gamut from the lack of qualified workers — one yogurt maker urged a resolution to the nation's immigration issue — to the difficulty and expense of hooking into the state's power grid. One untapped resource mentioned was waste-to-energy technology, which offers the promise of utilizing the prodigious amount of manure that dairies generate.

On that issue, Cuomo's agriculture secretary, Darrel Aubertine, said the administration plans to raise the threshold from 200 to 300 cows as the point at which farmers have to get a Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation permit.

Because that permit can cost $150,000 and require hiring a specialist, many farmers keep their herds at 199 to avoid crossing the threshold, said Ontario County farmer Kerry Adams.

"It's a big nut all at once," she said of the cost.

The state Department of Agriculture and Markets estimated there are more than 800 dairy farms with between 100 and 199 cows that could benefit from boosting the maximum allowable herd size.

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Not everyone agreed with the planned easing of regulations, however, noting that CAFO permits call for containment structures designed to keep manure and other forms of runoff out of water supplies.

"We are very concerned by the announcement today that New York State will weaken state environmental protections put in place to protect public health, safety and the environment by exempting medium-size industrial farms from its CAFO permit program," said a coalition of environmental groups in a prepared statement.

Protesting on a different front were anti-hydrofracking activists, who held a brief vigil outside the entrance to The Egg. The demonstration included youngsters in dead cow costumes to represent the threat they believe horizontal hydraulic fracturing gas drilling poses to farms.

The Cuomo administration is expected to decide shortly on whether drillers can begin using the controversial technique, which uses high volumes of water mixed with a small amount of chemicals to free natural gas from underground rock formations.

One of the summit's participants, however, said more available natural gas would be a help to dairy processing facilities.

Following the approximately two-hour summit, which included samples of yogurt, Cuomo said that growth industries like yogurt production are few and far between in upstate New York, and his administration wants to keep it going.

"Given this economy, we don't have a lot of industry coming in," he said.